Hellloooooo Icee Lovers! Okay, so I'm still editing this story, but the new chapter should be up by Saturday or Sunday! So excited! Anyways, without further ado, here's chapter 4!
Lance went through the portal before Angelica, just to be sure it was safe. Though, he had not thought far enough in advance to think of how he would actually let her know it was okay once he got through. However, he had more pressing matters on his hands. Like the fact that he had landed on top of Gladice. His face flushed, and she gasped. Scrambling to his feet, he reached a hand out and helped her to her feet. "S-sorry," he stuttered.
"N-no, it's fine." Through the dim lighting, he noticed that she, too, was blushing. "Where are we?" she blurted.
"Uhm... a forest?" he suggested, noting the trees surrounding them. Gladice rolled her eyes and gave him a mocking smile.
"Wow. I'm talking to a genius," she stated, her tone laced with sarcasm. "And here I was, thinking we were in a desert." Laughing, he threw his hands up in mock defense. This was the Gladice he knew. Sarcastic, funny, and oddly...pretty, in the moonlight dipping through the treetops. Lance turned away and rubbed his neck.
"Would you two stop flirting and acknowledge my existence, please?" Melody's voice startled them both, though Lance was not sure why. She had been the first one through the portal, of course she was going to be there.
Gladice gaped at her, clearly more shocked than him at her sudden appearance. There was something else hidden in her features... annoyance? Though he could not quite tell, he was thankful that Melody had interrupted their awkward little conversation. But there was still something he needed to say. Without warning, he placed a hand on Gladice's shoulder, leaned forward, and whispered, "I'm sorry for being so hard on you." Immediately, he pulled away, leaving Gladice frozen in place.
Suddenly, Evan came through the portal, followed immediately by Thalia carrying Angelica, then Luke, then Kaise and Keung. Rei came through with Genevieve minutes later, the two linked arm-in-arm. Finally, Rosette stumbled into the forest, placing her hands on a tree trunk to steady herself. Even though she seemed composed, she had clearly never gone through a portal before, because her orientation was very obviously not all there. When she tried standing without support, Evan put his hands on her shoulders to help her balance. Even still, she managed a glare at Melody. "Do you realize that you could have very well put all of us in danger?" she snapped.
Melody huffed and stuck her nose up at Rose. "Well, we're all here, aren't we? We haven't been attacked, yet."
"Yet." Rosette rubbed her temples. "In any case, we need to keep moving. Sitting here is just begging to get killed." Evan nodded in agreement, and looked expectantly at Brook to give him a direction.
After looking at the stars through the thick forestry, she pointed to the right. "North." With that, Evan helped Rosette through the vegetation, while the others followed. Lance took Angelica back into his arms and thanked Thalia profusely forgetting her through the portal.
"Tank you Talia!" Angelica told the girl, pulling on one of her flaming curls and giggling when it bounced.
Thalia grimaced at the touch. "Eh, don' mention it, lass. It was nothin'." The golden-haired girl beamed at her, and she slowly walked farther apart from them, afraid Angel would begin poking her freckles again. Ugh. Kids.
About an hour after they had started walking, Rei was starving. They had eaten some meat shortly before the whole portal fiasco, but he was wondering if it had even had any effect on him. He peered over at Genevieve and wondered if 'curing hunger' was included in her hair's weird powers. "Psst, Gen," he whispered. She looked at him out the corner of her eye, dropping her hands from where they had been diligently braiding a strand of her hair.
"What?" she responded, her eyes darting back to the forest ahead of her.
"I'm hungry," he said, as if he were going to die from it. Scoffing, Genevieve balled her hands into fists and fixed them on her hips.
"And just what do you want me to do about that?" she demanded, her left eyebrow twitching. "Heal your stomach?" When he actually nodded, she shook her head. "You are such an idiot, sometimes. Hunger isn't something I can heal, Rei." Gen smirked. "Besides, we ate before we got here.
"It must have been fake meat, because that did absolutely nothing to satisfy me." Rolling her eyes, Genevieve glanced over at her friend once more.
"I don't think s-" Her sentence was cut short, when Thalia suddenly stopped, causing her to bump into the taller girl's back. Somehow she had missed the burning bush of hair quit moving. Thalia barely turned around to see who had bumped into her.
"Sorry, lass. Guess I should've warned ya'," she apologized, but her focus was on something in front of her. "Somethin's happened." Indeed, something had happened. Lance had just fallen upon a strange stone pathway cutting through the forest with Angelica in his arms. The exhaustion on his face was as evident as the horror in realizing that he had dropped his little sister on to the hard ground. Brook picked up Angelica, and thankfully she seemed okay, though she was no longer awake, and a red patch was forming on her forehead. Gladice had bent down to help Lance up, which he did, after several attempts. Genevieve wasted no time in scurrying up to where Lance was. "Here, take a piece of my hair," Gen instructed, taking one of her longer layers and gently wrapping it around Angelica's head. Singing the song with everyone staring at her proved to be harder than she had anticipated, but still she managed to fix up Angel's head and Lance's exhaustion. But something was still...off, about the tiny girl, though she could not quite place it. Two lights shined through the fog, heading straight for the group, the shadow behind them turning into a strange machine.
"What is that?!" Gladice asked worriedly. The thing was slowing to a stop on the stone pathway, so it was not going to run them all over.
"It's a car," Evan and Rosette answered in unison. They were in abundance where he lived, and Rose often visited, so of course she would have seen them, too. But there was confusion on their faces, because this car was quite different from the ones in New Orleans, nor was it like any carriage they had in Maldonia. Finally, the thing stopped mere feet in front of them. A large woman stepped out of the car, marching over to their group. Brook moved instinctively behind Lance, and Thalia opted for a more defensive stance.
"Now who might you all be? This is private property!" The woman spoke with a thick Welsh accent, and everyone stared at Evan, whom was too busy studying the car. Instead, Rosette was the one who began speaking.
"Well, uh, Miss, you see-" She was cut off by a voice coming from the car.
"Mum? Everythin' okay?" The window rolled down to reveal a teenage boy with curly brown hair. "What's goin' on?"
"Not a clue, James. Not a clue."
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~Peace Out- Icee~